PA wants more info on out of hours care

A Patients Association (PA) spokesman has said that A&E departments are coming under strain because people do not know what out of GP hours resources are available.

Michael Summers' comments came after a Which? survey showed that 32 per cent of those needing out of hours care in the last year went to A&E departments.

Primary care trusts must disseminate information on out of hours care much more widely, according to Mr Summers.

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Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast programme, he said: "I have spoken to quite a number of doctors and nurses in A&E and they say that their workload increases substantially at times when GPs are not available. So there is a lot of pressure."

Approximately 30 per cent of patients are ignorant on how to contact out of hours services, so a third of people going to the A&E do not need to be there, Mr Summers added.

Contacting NHS Direct, going to a walk-in centre, or calling 999 are all alternatives to going to an A&E department.

Recently thousands of people called NHS Direct after they feared they had been poisoned in the aftermath of the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned by the highly radioactive polonium-210.

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